About Me

Ryan Patterson has been studying percussion for over 15 years and has performed and taught in a wide range of musical genres. From marching band and concert band, to symphony orchestras and steel pan bands, as well as chamber percussion ensembles, non-Western music ensembles, and solo music, Ryan has strived to experience a wide variety of music and share that, through education and performance, with everyone around him. Most recently he has shifted his focus to expanding the standard repertoire and curriculum of percussion education to advocate for and include non-Western music as a standard in the curriculum (see research page). Ryan holds a Doctorate from the University of Texas - Austin, a Masters degree from the University of Missouri - Columbia, and a Bachelors from Furman University in Greenville South Carolina. His primary teachers are Thomas Burritt, Tony Edwards, Megan Arns, William James, and Omar Carmenates. 

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He has a long history of performance excellence throughout his career which includes highlights of being a winner of the Furman concerto competition, a semi-finalist at the Great Plains Marimba competition, Performing in an independent chamber group at TMEA, performing as part of Ensemble 228 with the University of Texas Wind Symphony, touring with the trio RareForm, multiple summers at the Neif-Norf summer festival, and more. These experiences highlight the experience he has in classical percussion, but Ryan has recently expanded his efforts to learn more non-Western instruments and music. He spent a month in Ghana between the Dagbe cultural institute and the Dagara music center learning Ewe Drumming and Dancing and Dagara gyil music. His time with the steel pan band at UT Austin also lead him to put forth concerted efforts to perform more steel pan repertoire. 

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Ryan has been teaching percussion for over 10 years and has experience teaching in every field mentioned thus far. He has served as a private lessons teacher for the majority of those 10 years and has also served as a drumline and front ensemble instructor for 5 seasons and the drumline teaching assistant and arranger for Marching Mizzou (2016-2018). He has also served as a percussion intern for the Carolina Youth Symphony where he oversaw and instructed three different youth symphonies percussion sections for 4 concert seasons. He has also served as the Steel pan Teaching Assistant during his Doctorate at UT Austin